LIFE IN IRELAND 173 



jolly first luff, bread and butter fashion, or as we 

 sailors have it, dab says DariieL We never apologise 

 on board a man of war ; our means of accommodating 

 a friend are always rough and ready, though they may 

 be small, so make the best of your birth. Sally was 

 lifted into the cot by two of the accommodating 

 officers, and Brian untogged, made a spring, he forgot 

 the bed-posts were hung from the ceiling, and conse- 

 quently 110 fixtures \ the event was, that he turned the 

 turtle, and bottom up brought his chere amie, he 

 himself reeling head foremost into the master's cabin ; 

 his heels stuck into the gun-room where Sally laid, bung 

 up and bilge free, amidst the laughter of all the wicked 

 crew. This was not the worst ; in Brian's fall he came 

 in contact with the master's wife's sturnpost, she being 

 of large dimensions, they were obliged to prick for the 

 softest pla?ik upon the deck. 



Blood and blue blazes, swore old Mrs. Tarpaulin, 

 I '11 send the fellow to hell that dares attack me at my 

 moorings in blanket bay. 



Brian apologised, but Mrs. Tarpaulin said, that in 

 extricating himself from his perilous situation (by the 

 bye, he was near lobspound, and might have been 

 suddenly ingulped), he laid hold of her front, and tore 

 off those locks, which for years had secured the affec- 

 tion of her husband; she bought them at Foreinan's in 

 Pall Mall, not more than forty years ago, and of 

 course they were to her husband as good as new. 



Things were soon arranged in the after gun-room, 

 and Brian, with his new found love, rested contentedly 

 till morning was announced by the crowing of the sea 

 cock. 



